Bill wonders if Romney really knew what he was saying and asks Haney López “is it possible he didn’t think of that as a dog whistle?”

Haney López responds, “He’s pretty clear that he thinks it’s the narrative that his audience wants to hear.”

“[D]og whistle politics doesn’t come out of animus at all. It doesn’t come out of some desire to hurt minorities. It comes out of a desire to win votes. And in that sense, I want to start using the term strategic racism. It’s racism as a strategy. It’s cold, it’s calculating, it’s considered, it’s the decision to achieve one’s own ends, here winning votes, by stirring racial animosity. And… that’s the decision that Mitt Romney made.”

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